Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/30

 doctor, and, as he afterwards declared, was so charmed with his pleasing manner and address, that he had no resolution to carry out his desperate intention. Impelled, however, by the same gloomy disposition that actuated him when he set out, he a few minutes after shot a well known citizen, Mr. Robert Scull, for which crime he was tried and executed.

Dr. Cadwalader was the author of an octavo volume of forty-two pages, entitled "An Essay on the West India Dry Gripes, with the method of preventing and curing that cruel Distemper," to which is added, "An extraordinary Case in Physic." Printed and sold by B. Franklin, 1745. This was one of the first medical publications in America, and the first which has come down to us made in our city. The disease treated of by Dr. C. under the name of Dry Gripes, was in his day a very common affection here, arising from the use of punch. This beverage was made from Jamaica rum, and was the fashionable drink, until pointed out as giving rise to the disease in question, which it did, in consequence of containing poisoning qualities derived from the leaden pipes which were used in its distillation. The common mode of treating the disease was by the employment of crude mercury and drastic purgatives, and the object of the tract in question was to